The latest on California politics and government

May 24, 2013

With a potentially per-diem-wrecking three day weekend ahead, a schedule shuffle has left us with an unusually busy Friday. Much of the action is in the Assembly Appropriations Committee, which will be sifting through more than 300 bills currently on the suspense file to decide which can advance and which are trapped in legislative limbo. (For a look at how the Senate suspense bills fared, click here.)

Other than that, we have some Assembly budget subcommittees and a meeting of the Senate Budget and Fiscal Review Committee. We'll try to let you know how long lawmakers spend in the building before skedaddling back to their districts.

VIDEO: We're moving closer to crunch time on the budget, but Dan Walters expects lawmakers to finish their work on time.

GAVIN'S GRADUATION GAB: We've had a stretch of graduation ceremonies that have included commencement speeches from Gov. Jerry Brown (Berkeley) and Rep. Nancy Pelosi (UC Davis law school). Today it's Lt. Gov. Gavin Newsom's turn. He'll be addressing students at the College of Marin starting at 6 p.m.

FUEL STANDARDS: California's landmark carbon emissions law requires, among other things, that the state establish a low carbon fuel standard that reduces by 10 percent the amount of carbon emitted by fuels sold in the state. The Air Resources Board is holding a public workshop to discuss some new proposals during a 9:30 a.m. meeting at Cal EPA on I Street.

MONSANTO MARCH: As part of an international day of protest, advocates are rallying Saturday in Sacramento against agro-giant Monsanto, whose seed patent protections were recently upheld by the U.S. Supreme Court. The demonstration starts at 11 a.m. on the Capitol's north steps and will include a march down the Capitol Mall. As of this writing, the Facebook group for the event lists about 1,800 people as attending.